Slim-line ps2 harddrive capability

pinkkirby

pinkkirby

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Hi, this is probably a dumb question, but is there a way to connect harddrive to the newer slim model ps2?? I was told by others that you can't use it.... but ... with today's technology, is there any cable external way to connect a harddrive? There is gotta be a way...........................
 
So, basically sony is given up on FF11 ? This is an odd decision I mean, afterall they stopped producing the old style ps2. I would at least expect that they are giving people choice of either getting the old "fatter" ps2 with harddrive capability... or the newer line but no FF11. This just doesn't make sense.
 
No way, Nix, Nien, /いいえ(iie), No(in spanish!), нет(Nyet), 不, αριθ.

etc... that should cover most answers.

As for FF11, Sony was disintersted in trying to force the issue after realizeing the US market wasn't ready for the plans they wanted to pursue (things like downloadable music and movies), Squeenix actually ended up lobbying for the HDD's release here and footed the bill for beta testing and marketing. Sony figured once the thing had been out for a while that anyone that was interested in FF11 had already bought an oiginal designed PS2 seeing as they's sold like tens of millions of them (MMORPGs rarely see a huge subscriber base compared to regular console single player games and it was already on PC as well) and thus at this point in time no one would be interested since only one or two developers made any games that used it. (partly dude to Sony's slowness to release it in the first place) many japanese develoeprs used it in japan be removed he features for US released versions. When no one minded that the games were a bit slow without the HDD Sony didnt see a problem dropping it from the hardware. (no one seemed to mind when they dropped the iLink so this was a similar decision.) At least at this point any game from Japan that uses the HDD will probably still use it here as it would be kinda dumb to take it out since people have it now and it would cost more money to program it out as well.
 
[quote name='Alpha2']No way, Nix, Nien, /いいえ(iie), No(in spanish!), нет(Nyet), 不, αριθ.

etc... that should cover most answers.

As for FF11, Sony was disintersted in trying to force the issue after realizeing the US market wasn't ready for the plans they wanted to pursue (things like downloadable music and movies), Squeenix actually ended up lobbying for the HDD's release here and footed the bill for beta testing and marketing. Sony figured once the thing had been out for a while that anyone that was interested in FF11 had already bought an oiginal designed PS2 seeing as they's sold like tens of millions of them (MMORPGs rarely see a huge subscriber base compared to regular console single player games and it was already on PC as well) and thus at this point in time no one would be interested since only one or two developers made any games that used it. (partly dude to Sony's slowness to release it in the first place) many japanese develoeprs used it in japan be removed he features for US released versions. When no one minded that the games were a bit slow without the HDD Sony didnt see a problem dropping it from the hardware. (no one seemed to mind when they dropped the iLink so this was a similar decision.) At least at this point any game from Japan that uses the HDD will probably still use it here as it would be kinda dumb to take it out since people have it now and it would cost more money to program it out as well.[/quote]

yeah, but I thought at least they would find a way to externally connects it... maybe ugly looking but as long as it works. It's just very odd to completely drop the HD idea for the slim line.
 
[quote name='pinkkirby']

yeah, but I thought at least they would find a way to externally connects it... maybe ugly looking but as long as it works. It's just very odd to completely drop the HD idea for the slim line.[/quote]

It's not odd, just an admission of failure on Sony's part. Failing to release the hard drive within a year of the PS2's US launch guaranteed most third party publishers would be uninterested in supporting it in games that didn't absolutely require it. Sony's own MMORPG company, the former Verant, pretty much crippled the PS2 version of Everquest by forcing it to run solely from DVD and memory card.

The slim PStwo is intended to maximize the PS2 installed base for those areas where it has been successful. Continued hard drive support would have added cost when the greatest reward lies in cutting cost to reach the $99 retail price point by next Xmas.
 
[quote name='epobirs'][quote name='pinkkirby']

yeah, but I thought at least they would find a way to externally connects it... maybe ugly looking but as long as it works. It's just very odd to completely drop the HD idea for the slim line.[/quote]

It's not odd, just an admission of failure on Sony's part. Failing to release the hard drive within a year of the PS2's US launch guaranteed most third party publishers would be uninterested in supporting it in games that didn't absolutely require it. Sony's own MMORPG company, the former Verant, pretty much crippled the PS2 version of Everquest by forcing it to run solely from DVD and memory card.

The slim PStwo is intended to maximize the PS2 installed base for those areas where it has been successful. Continued hard drive support would have added cost when the greatest reward lies in cutting cost to reach the $99 retail price point by next Xmas.[/quote]

Sigh, I guess every penny counts, if you can reduce the cost.. certain decision needs to be made.
Anyways, when you guys meant no, as in spect wise? To those of you who knows electronics well - Does Ps2 slim just offer no hard drive suport AT ALL, or it's just for now because there is no way to connect it?

Is it even possible that some 3rd party will come up with some sort of hard drive cable to make it work? Maybe connects to USB port or something?

if this is absoulty a no go, then i might return my sealed slim ps2 and get a used fattie ps2.
 
It depends if the USB ports on the slim ps2 are usb 2.0 or 1.1 If they are 2.0 then a usb hard drive is an option. If it is only 1.1 then there is no option for hard drive support.
 
[quote name='Indiana']It depends if the USB ports on the slim ps2 are usb 2.0 or 1.1 If they are 2.0 then a usb hard drive is an option. If it is only 1.1 then there is no option for hard drive support.[/quote]

Despite all the rumors you might have heard, Sony has stated conclusively that the PStwo USB host is solely USB 1.1 and completely identical to its predecessor.

The two main chips in the original PS2 were given a major die shrink and combined into one package. This greatly reduced their heat emissions and size to make this design possible. AFAIK, the third PS2 chip, created by LSI that provides the backward compatibility and all the ports, is unchanged from the previous PS2 designs. As such it couldn't possibly be USB 2.0 capable as USB 2.0 was still just a proposal and some demos at IDF when the PS2 chipset was frozen.
 
I forget where I read it, but aparantly Sony plans on bringing out memory cards big enough to hold files for such things as FFXI. Sounds extremely impractical, but you never know.
 
Man....I remember reading an interview with some big wig at Sony on one of issues of EGM and they asked him this same question and he said (if I remember this right) that there will be support for HDs in the future for the slimmer PS2.

I remember that he did not give a "never" or a "not likely" verbiage on his response which kinda gave me hope they would.

I have to find this interview and post his actual response. Maybe during my lunch break today but as far as I can remember, he did say that they would eventually allow HDs to be supported.

I will have to recheck on that as soon as I can. Maybe one of you guys can find this interview...maybe found 4 or 5 issues back.
 
In Japan there is an official ps2 USB hard drive peripheral. No idea whether or not hdloader and the like work with it though.
 
[quote name='Indiana']It depends if the USB ports on the slim ps2 are usb 2.0 or 1.1 If they are 2.0 then a usb hard drive is an option. If it is only 1.1 then there is no option for hard drive support.[/quote]

I understand its USB 1.1 so thats not really a option. I have seen tons of articles on this and the answer is no because of the USB 1.1, I wonder if they saved any money by not upgrading this to 2.0. Probably not, they just wanted to save a penny or 2.
 
Thanks for all your comments. This is what i really want to find out, a big NO NO for sure or it's still "possible" just not happening right now. Guess there is still hope.

I really don't care how it looks, i meant being small is good but to me ps2 just looks ugly period. regardless it's size. But looks like slim-line is my only option of buying a brand new ps2, since i have been trying so hard to find a brand new old style and i don't think it even exists anymore.

Basically it comes down to buying a brand new ps2 without hard drive feature, or buying a USED ps2 with somewhat simliar price (129.99) and it's freaking USED.

Any comments on buying a used system guys? Any horrible story of system broke on you in a month? I have never bought any used system/game in my entire gaming career.
 
[quote name='DaleNixon']In Japan there is an official ps2 USB hard drive peripheral. No idea whether or not hdloader and the like work with it though.[/quote]

It would be pointless. The 4X DVD drive in the PS2 has substatially greater throughput than a USB 1.1 drive. The effective speed for a USB 1.1 drive is at best under 8 megabits per second. While USB 1.1 is rate dat 12 Mbps there is substantial overhead and by design it doesn't allow a single device to completely hog the bus.

By comparison the X in DVD drive speeds is 9.8 Mbps. This is the top rate required for DVD video playback and thus the standard for DVD drives. This is why there wasn't anyone pushing external DVD drives connected by USB 1.1 as there wasn't use for a DVD drive that couldn't handle video.
 
Old news, this device was being workd on when they were under the impression that the PS2 did in deed have USB2.0 ports, it's since come out and it's only good from running small applications off of external USB thumbdrive type devices.

Also on the rumor about the HEWG MEMORY cards capable of running FF11? it's a crock. The Memory card slot is in no way, shape or from fast enough to output the amount of data needed, if it were people would have created HD connection cables to hook straight into the card slot. this will never happen, best to just for get you ever heard it.

I did have a theory about using the Ethernet port on the broadband adaptor to connect to a network drive but the amount of programing this would take would probably put off anyone truely concidering it.
 
Are there any future games that would even use the hard drive anyway besides FF XI? The hard drive is not very useful when there's only limited software you can use it for, let alone just 1 thus far..
 
[quote name='PSTwoGamer']Are there any future games that would even use the hard drive anyway besides FF XI? The hard drive is not very useful when there's only limited software you can use it for, let alone just 1 thus far..[/quote]

It the old chicken and the egg problem. Which comes first? The market demand or the product to create market and get developers interested which in turn makes shoppers interested when they see the feature list on more packages.

The problem is that Sony waited so long the chicken hit menopause and the egg became a sulfurous weapon.
 
As I've said many times before Companies pulled out HDD functionality from games comming from japan (where it's used a bit more) to the US because we didn't have it. But I feel that if there are any games over there now they intend to have use it the fucntionality would like stay in this time if they brought it over now... thing is they probably wouldnt advertise it very loudly
 
er...actually, sony dropped the old ps2, and HD because of one pirating device: HDloader.
sony sued HDloader, but then HDadvance came out, leaving sony no choice but to discontinue support for the HD.

FFXI was no way a failure, japan had plenty of players, and FFXI manage to provide SE with good profit.
 
[quote name='omegaweapon7']er...actually, sony dropped the old ps2, and HD because of one pirating device: HDloader.
sony sued HDloader, but then HDadvance came out, leaving sony no choice but to discontinue support for the HD.

FFXI was no way a failure, japan had plenty of players, and FFXI manage to provide SE with good profit.[/quote]

Yeah I guess this kind of device was giving them a lot of problem. I was just hoping to buy a system with "more" capability since the price is the same, 149.99. FFXI isn't really the problem for me since I would choose to play computer version over ps2 anyways.

I already unwrapped my slim-line so no way of returning now. It feels neat but does it always run this hot? I played for about a hour and touched the system case, it feels VERY WARM. It got me worried a little.
 
The loss of the HD had nothing to do with the HDloader the design was set long before it had become an issue worth worrying about.
 
im not too sure alpha, some magazine did a page on hdloader, which sony sued because it was a huge problem. you don't see sony worrying about other modchips and such. Hdloader was so popular among pirates, it was costing the gaming industry 150million a year. (dont have the exact numbers here)
 
[quote name='BLarR']If the MMO thing is your only concern, just play EQadventures, much better than FF11 imo.[/quote]

:shock: :x :roll:
 
[quote name='omegaweapon7']im not too sure alpha, some magazine did a page on hdloader, which sony sued because it was a huge problem. you don't see sony worrying about other modchips and such. Hdloader was so popular among pirates, it was costing the gaming industry 150million a year. (dont have the exact numbers here)[/quote]

Well yeah, it allowed you to play games off of the HD without the game disc. I don't think it caused Sony to do this, I think it was just to cut their losses on the HDD.
 
With millions of Old style PS2s in existance switching to the PStwo slim design wasnt going to help matters all that much, that's why they sued, if they thought the slim was going to help they wouldnt have evenbothered, they'd just sell them and laugh in the face of the HDloader's makers.
 
[quote name='epobirs'][quote name='DaleNixon']In Japan there is an official ps2 USB hard drive peripheral. No idea whether or not hdloader and the like work with it though.[/quote]

It would be pointless. The 4X DVD drive in the PS2 has substatially greater throughput than a USB 1.1 drive. The effective speed for a USB 1.1 drive is at best under 8 megabits per second. While USB 1.1 is rate dat 12 Mbps there is substantial overhead and by design it doesn't allow a single device to completely hog the bus.

By comparison the X in DVD drive speeds is 9.8 Mbps. This is the top rate required for DVD video playback and thus the standard for DVD drives. This is why there wasn't anyone pushing external DVD drives connected by USB 1.1 as there wasn't use for a DVD drive that couldn't handle video.[/quote]

Too bad they did away with the firewire, then. But seriously, anyone who has a use for a hard drive has a fatty ps2 and a hard drive, or they should. I mean, I didn't see anyone raiding the stores and buying them all up when they were available - and you can still get a used fatty ps2 and a hard drive (various ones fit and are practically useable, up to 200 gigabytes from what I read).

Not only that, but dont forget that if games get massive (which they won't in this console's lifetime) they can be printed on multiple dual layer dvd's. As for Games that require large save files, like FFXI or whatever, get over it. They could certainly support larger memory cars, or USB sticks if they wanted. Yes it would be slow, but the bigger issue is the developer isn't going to support all two people what want this feature. Make a game like GTA: San Andreas support large dynamic files and see if something isn't done to fix this situation - but it is too late for that. If that's going to happen, it'll be the next generation console at the earliest.

Besides - go buy a pc if you want all that nonsense. I just want to load, play and save the progress of my game, when it comes to consoles. Why should I want to pay for extra features on my console because two of you want it on yours.
 
I did read on IGN letters, that sony was working on large Memory card around 500 megs and would surpport updated FF XI... but it's 2 months since i heard something new...

But i'll just look for an OLD PS2 if i wanna play FF...
 
[quote name='BasketCase1080']couyldnt u just buy the cables from sony then get a laptop hdd?[/quote]

I understand that this idea won't work with the slim PStwo because the in/out jacks aren't the right capacity to work with standard HDDs. Somebody who knows the technical details please fill in here. :cry:
 
For people who haven't been paying attention:
THERE IS NO CONNECTOR ON THE NEW MODEL PS2 TO CONNECT A HARD DRIVE OF ANY FORM FACTOR OR INTERFACE STANDARD OF SUFFICIENT SPEED TO BE OF ANY PRACTICAL USE.

The hard drive for the PS2 platform is a failed product. Sony waited too long and the potential was lost. The PStwo design reflects this in placing cost effectiveness over support for obsolescent add-ons. If people had really cared they had ample opportunity to buy the HDD Kit well before the PStwo entered the picture.

Get over it and move on.
 
[quote name='Spoon_si']I did read on IGN letters, that sony was working on large Memory card around 500 megs and would surpport updated FF XI... but it's 2 months since i heard something new...

But i'll just look for an OLD PS2 if i wanna play FF...[/quote]

This would be pretty worthless on their part when USB flash drives of this capacity or greater are widely available. All a new FFXI edition would need to do is support USB hard drives. It would be slow not as painfully slow as the Memory Card slot that are limited by their need to be compatible with PS1 memory cards.

IIRC, FFXI does a lot of disk caching. The need for hard drive capacity isn't just for the player's data. If so, this would make the game rather clunky if played from a combination of DVD and USB 1.1 drive. If Sony really cared about this market they could have easily offered an external IDE connector on the newer PS2 but it wasn't seen as worthwhile as the savings for eliminating the port. The desire for an eventual $99 and less PS2 price point trumps the small console MMORPG market. Especially when the game in question is much better played on a PC.
 
*Drags dead horse to the center of the room... and beats the ever loving snot out of it*

Well... that makes me feel better...

Highly doubt any HDD support will be implemented this close to the PS3 launch... two years ago... maybe... now.. no
 
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